The reason for being on LinkedIn is to be able to take your relationships off of LinkedIn. As Important as LinkedIn is in building relationships, it’s equally important to eventually take those relationships offline, and communicating via email is often the next step in that process.

In addition to LinkedIn’s existing CRM-Lite features, syncing your email allows you to track your activity with connections on LinkedIn beyond the LinkedIn message and social engagement.

You may want to check with your IT department’s policies before syncing your work email, but if you can, syncing it to LinkedIn can be helpful in a few ways.

How to Sync Your Email With LinkedIn

STEP 1: Click on Connections in the Main Menu

STEP 2: Click on the Grey Gear Icon to the Right

You can see many sync options including Gmail, Yahoo! and Outlook.

STEP 3: Sync Your Email Account

When you do this, a few things happen as a result. (You can get added functionality by syncing your calendars and contacts.)

Benefits of Syncing Your Email with LinkedIn

1. When I’m on someone’s LinkedIn profile, I can see if we’ve emailed recently.

On a person’s profile page, I can see the subject line, date and source of my exchange, in this case, Gmail. However, I cannot see the full email exchange. It simply shows me when I communicated with that person. I can’t see the text of the email.

This is how emails appear on the LinkedIn Connected app on an iPhone:

2. When I’m in Connections, the default is Recent Conversation.

If I’ve sent an email to someone via Gmail today, LinkedIn registers it as a recent conversation and their name moves to the top – most recent.

3. On the Connected LinkedIn app, you can email people directly if you sync your email account.

4. In the Connections section, instead of communicating via LinkedIn Message, I can select email as a mode to communicate with someone.

For example, I can respond to an Update on the Connections page via email. When I go to the Connections page and look at the updates at the top, Eg. Congratulate, I can choose to email them directly from my email address.

I can also send someone an email from the Message button when selected in list form.

As you can see, by syncing your email, you can email a person directly from within LinkedIn, without having to go to your email account.

Please note, this article is by no means a detailed account of what you can do when you sync your email, but it should give you an indication whether you want to look into it further.

Summary

If you link your email account, it opens up the potential to contact people more fluidly from your email account within the LinkedIn platform.

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based social sales strategy and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

Multiple studies tell us 50-70% of the buying process is being conducted online.

People are evaluating you online, and deciding whether they’re going to call you or not, even in the case of referrals.

Have you recently needed a new Doctor?

You go on his website, see his picture, learn where he went to school and maybe a few personal things about him. And, you might, say to yourself, “He’s too young!” Or you might say, “He plays golf, and I’m a golfer. Should be a good fit.”

With so many provider options available to people today, everyone is just looking for a sign that says, this is the right person for me!

Don’t you feel that way when you’re looking for the right doctor? “Pleeeze, let this doctor look like someone I would want to see!”

Likewise, buyers want you to be the right one! They want a trusted advisor that can solve their problems quickly and thoughtfully.

Are you sending the right signals to your ideal buyer on your LinkedIn profile?

How do you send the right signals to your ideal buyer that says “I am the right provider for you!”?

1. Make sure your picture projects an image your buyer wants to see.

2. In the first sentence of your summary, write who you help and how you help them.

Often, and especially on mobile, only the first sentence of your summary is visible. The reader should know immediately whether they fit the description of who you help.

3. Explain in your Summary and Experience sections the business change you’ve already made for your clients.

When people read stories of how you helped clients and the results of that work, they’ll more easily picture how your work might impact their results too. (And more readily contact you for help.)

Summary

As a seller, you are a buyer too. Think about what signals you are most likely to pick up on when you’re looking for a provider.

Then make sure you’re sending signs your ideal buyer will know were meant for them.

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through professional branding, social selling and online influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

You’re never going to sell anything on LinkedIn. You need to get prospects offline first. But, imagine you had to.

Imagine you had to explain your product in writing, overcome objections in writing and demonstrate your understanding of the marketplace, in writing, video, audio and images online.

Your customer is turning to the internet and social networks to conduct initial purchasing research and vet options before deciding who to call and talk to further. So, actually, we’re in a business world, where selling yourself and your product online should already be an integral part of your business development and sales expertise.

Once you’ve got your LinkedIn Profile looking bright and shiny, what else can you do?

Writing a LinkedIn article is the next natural step. By demonstrating you have something interesting to say (that your company didn’t write) and that you can communicate at all is an effective way to differentiate yourself, and ensure you get a call or meeting offline.

What Should I Write?

1. What’s the most most common question your prospects ask you?

Write an article answering that question.

2. What’s the most common objection you get to buying your product or service?

Write an article with reasons countering those objections. (In an educational, non-combative tone.)

3. What’s the latest change impacting buyers in your industry?

Write an article on the best ways to manage that change.

Summary

There are many other ideas, but these are three good ones to start.

If you’re insecure about writing, just start. Create an outline, fill it in and then share it with a colleague, spouse or friend for editing and proofing. Even professional writers have editors. You may want to check out Ann Handley’s book, Everybody Writes if you’re struggling.

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through professional branding, social selling and online influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

You’re probably familiar with how to message someone on LinkedIn. On their profile, click the blue Message button, write a subject and message, and click send.

However, you can send a message to multiple people on LinkedIn.

The best use of unsolicited mass-messages on LinkedIn is when you have something of high value to share with a targeted group of connections. For example, you may be announcing a webinar or sending out a new E-book.

How to message multiple people at one time on LinkedIn

1. Click on Connections on the top menu bar.

2. Filter or search for multiple connections you want to message at the same time.

3. Check all the names of people you want to message at one time.

4. Click on the message button.

All the names will populate into one message, and towards the bottom, there is an option to select whether you want the recipients to see each other’s names or not.

You may want to uncheck it.

This is what your message looks like when the sender leaves the box UNCHECKED.

You are one of a number of people. However, if you don’t know the other people, the message can feel like unpersonalized spam.

Option 1: When it’s important for recipients to see who is receiving the message, leave the box checked.

Option 2: When recipients don’t know each other, uncheck the box and it won’t seem like a mass-message.

Summary

Treat mass-messaging on LinkedIn as you would mass-emailing. Only show other people’s emails when you want them to know they’re all part of a message.

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through professional branding, social selling and online influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

In the old world (c. 1990), authors of published books were selected authorities in their area of expertise. By publishing, they gained even more credibility, along with visibility and media exposure with their target market.

Do you want more credibility, visibility and engagement?

Publish on LinkedIn! Your audience might be smaller, but your audience will be more targeted and relevant.

3 Reasons You Should Publish Articles on LinkedIn

1. Credibility

You can show you’re not an order-taker

You can communicate you understand your buyer

You can differentiate yourself from your competition

2. Visibility

Your article will be shown as a notification to those in your network.

When people read your articles and they like and comment on your articles, that activity will show in as an update in the newsfeed of people in their network.

Your article could get exposure beyond your network if it’s picked up and shared in a certain category by LinkedIn Pulse.

Your article could get shared on LinkedIn updates email to your network.

When people search posts by keywords, you could appear as an author on that topic.

3. Engagement

By sharing your thought leadership you have the opportunity to influence and connect with potential buyers, influencers or people in your industry who are specifically interested in what you have to say.

It’s the ideal inbound selling opportunity.

Summary

Publishing on LinkedIn is a no-brainer. Even if you’re not writing regularly, having one or two evergreen articles as an integral part of your LinkedIn profile helps you establish your personal brand and distinguish you from the crowd.

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

When translating your personal brand into an online digital persona, it’s good to remind yourself that you are found and communicate who you are on the internet, mostly in words. This comes as a relief to some and a burden for others.

With that in mind, you don’t want to use industry jargon as much as the keywords and phrases that people use everyday to describe what they’re looking for.

If you say you’re an “attorney”, that’s fine, but if you use the words “corporate tax lawyer”, that’s going to resonate more precisely. If you say, “New York corporate tax lawyer” your chances of resonating with those that need you and can refer you, are even greater.

Since you don’t typically go around defining yourself in keywords, it can be helpful to conduct a simple exercise to identify keywords that most clearly define you.

Write down the top keywords in each of the following categories and any related hashtags.

1. Industries You Work In / For

Eg. Financial Services, #finserv

2. Services You Provide

Eg. Retirement Planning #401k

3. Decision Maker Titles / Your Title

Chief Financial Officer, #cfo

4. Location (if applicable)

Eg. Los Angeles, #losangeles

Once you’ve identified the most optimized keywords for your work, those keywords will be the cornerstone for many things:

1. They should be used generously in your LinkedIn profile so that you rank higher when someone searches for those terms.

4. They translate into the top skills (endorsements) to include on your LinkedIn profile.

5. They guide your selection of what LinkedIn Groups to join.

Summary

Take time to identify the top 3-10 “key”-words that your ideal buyer uses to unlock your door.

Stay focused on those top keywords to avoid wasting time on other non-related topics.

Update them as necessary.

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

If you’re feeling in a “DIY” mood, Canva is a super-simple free graphic making tool for the non-graphic designer in all of us. To create your own LinkedIn background header, follow the steps below.

Just remember, if you choose to DIY, make sure you ask a few colleagues if they like what you’ve done. You want your background image to enhance, not diminish, the quality of your personal brand.

How to Design a LinkedIn Background Image

To edit your LinkedIn Profile background header: while in Edit mode, put your cursor over the top section of your LinkedIn profile. The Edit Background edit icon will appear. Click on it.

When you click on the Image Requirements button, you’ll see the pixel dimension of the image you want: 1400 x 425. (Pixels are like inches, but for digital images.)

(Please note, you’ll only see those template images if you have a Premium version, but it doesn’t matter because you’re going to upload your own background.)

Step 1: Open a free Canva account.

Step 2: Canva offers you pre-sized templates for different types of backgrounds. However, at the time of this article they do not offer a LinkedIn header template. Instead, click “Use custom dimensions.”

*VERY IMPORTANT: The text and logo must be in the upper third of the background image, or it will be hidden by your profile avatar and the top of your profile.

Step 4: When your image is complete, download it as an Image.

Step 5: On your LinkedIn Profile, click Edit Background and click Upload to upload the image you created in Canva.

*Alert: In edit mode, you may find that part of your image or text is hidden. Click on View Profile As to see it the public view.

If your image is still hidden, you’ll have to go back to Canva, reposition your image or text higher up, resave, download and upload again. Click on View Profile again and see if it’s no longer hidden.

And… you’re done!

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

My first LinkedIn headshot was taken by a friend in my living room. After 2 hours of shooting, 3 different lamps moved into 5 different positions, followed by another 4 hours of editing, I got a respectable photo.

My current photo was taken by the wonderful Tara Gimmer. Because she was at a conference I was attending, it was easier to make happen than if I had done it on my own.

We all want good-looking professional photos, but while the best photos are taken by a professional photographer, that can be expensive and inconvenient.

Drum roll, please! A professional-looking photo in under $100 is just around the corner!

Target or JC Penney?

Here’s what I know:

Target and JC Penney have portrait studios at selected stores and they make it extremely simple to set up an appointment. The websites for Target and JC Penney, respectively, are: targetportraits.com and jcpportraits.com

(If you’ve click on both these sites, you may have noticed they’re exactly the same design and setup — the companies apparently use the same scheduling service.)

Enter your Zip Code.

Pick a date and time that works for you.

Enter your information.

Get your confirmation.

But, there’s more! They provide coupons, discounts and other offers, right on the website!

Summary

Having a professional headshot is priceless in the online world today. With the online scheduler, it couldn’t be easier to get a great photo around the corner from your home or work — all for about $100.

And, although it’s not very glamorous, it is affordable and amazingly convenient. And, once you’re done, you can pick up that beer or pack of diapers you’ve been needing to buy!

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

Take the Quiz

Instructions: Have a colleague look at your LinkedIn photo and answer these questions honestly.

(Correct answers are at the bottom.)

Question 1

Does this picture include a second person’s ________ ,

A. Arm hair

B. Wine glass

C. None of the above

Question 2

If you met this person for the first time face to face would you think “This person looks ________ .”

A. Waaay older than I expected.

B. As approachable as they look in their LinkedIn photo.

C. Wait… Is that him? I can’t tell.

Question 3

The outfit this person is wearing makes them look like they’re going to _________ .

A. An important business meeting in their industry.

B. A bar to pick up women/men.

C. A Hawaiian BBQ.

Question 4

The look on their face makes me feel __________.

A. They might be in pain.

B. They take themselves way too seriously.

C. Relaxed and happy.

Question 5

It looks like this photo was taken ________.

A. Through a foggy camera lens.

B. By a professional who used good light and a good camera.

C. By a 3-year old.

Answers

1. C

2. B

3. A

4. C

5. B

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.

LinkedIn gives everyone their own unique URL to their LinkedIn profile, but they allow you to customize it. Instead of the default URL: www.linkedin.com/in/sydneybrown29802fjas7801… it could be changed to www.linkedin.com/in/sydneyjbrown.

Step 1: Go to Your Profile (Edit Mode) and Click on Your URL

This is just under your photo on your LinkedIn Profile.

Step 2: Make Your LinkedIn Profile Public

On the right side of your screen, click “Make my public profile visible to everyone”, thereby making it searchable by search engines.

The reason you want your LinkedIn profile to be publicly available is simple. If someone refers you, and that person is not in your LinkedIn network, they won’t be able to find your LinkedIn profile and learn more about you, unless that information is publicly available. (There’s no point in having a site for a business and keeping it private.)

You can however, select which elements of your profile you want to be public.

Step 3: Select the Individual Elements of Your Profile You Want to Be Public

Uncheck boxes for content you don’t want publicly available. You can see that as you check or uncheck each section, the preview on the left changes, accordingly.

Step 4: Select Your Personalize URL Name

In the lower right hand column, below “Your public profile URL”, click the blue pencil.

Change it to your name, ideally. If your name is not available, play with your middle initial and the order of your names.

Alternatively, write your name and add a number, or a keyword.

Just make sure you use words that will change with your career. If you own your own company, you could put the name. But if you’re an employee at Jones Supply, chances are you may not be forever, so it’s best not to include that name in your URL.

Step 5: Check It

Go back to your Profile page and make sure your URL is correct. If ever you want to check what your public profile looks like, simply click on this link again.

Step 6: Share Your URL

Now that you have a customized URL, share it! Here are some ideas of where to include a link to your LinkedIn profile:

Email Signature

Company Bio Page

Printed Business Card

Twitter Bio

Final Take-Away

Now that you have an easy-to-write URL and are sharing it, make sure the LinkedIn profile people see when they click on that link is up-to-date and represents you well!

Celina Guerrero is founder of Los Angeles-based coaching and training company, Social to Sales. We help you transform your expertise into revenue through personal branding, social selling and digital influence.

Interested in learning more? Contact Celina at 310-994-8099, email her at celina@socialtosales.com, or sign up for our weekly e-news and blog updates by clicking HERE.